Sunday, 16 December 2012

Hexon II Terrain board

Last year before I left the UK, I bought a set of Hexon II terrain system from Kallistra.

This is an injection moulded plastic product that allows you to model a sturdy layout that can be stacked in pieces for storage.

The raw tiles

I will admit that the storage aspect was what originally drew me to this product, as someone who is usually very pressed for space. As the underside of the tiles are hollow, it is also possible to model detail onto the tiles that will be protected while stored.

The second interesting feature is that as the layout is composed of hexes, forests or other rough terrain can be very easily delineated.

Hexes with trees are considered woods

I bought the set unflocked to allow me maximum modeling potential, but to be honest it took a really long time to get these finished. If you only want grassy hexes, I would recommend the pre-flocked variety.

The tiles come with clips to keep them together, but I found that using my neoprene pin-board as a base meant I did not need them. By bizarre coincidence, it is also the exact right size to accomodate a 4x2 tile layout.

Speaking of layouts, because of their hexagonal nature, it is possible to arrange them in a hexagonal pattern instead of the usual square or rectangle. I think this has some tremendous possibilities, such as designating the six outermost hexes as deployment or reinforcement zones that can be easily randomized with a simple d6 roll!

An interesting alternative layout

Now that I have gone to all this trouble, I'm going to play a few games on it to see how useful they turn out to be.

I originally painted them all in a grey color with the intention of using them as a cityscape... But they just didn't look right. After adding some browns and grass they really came alive, so I think for an urban layout I will be better off making some cork tile squares with roads built in.

18 comments:

Well done Spacejacker. As I said in an earlier reply, I think I may have done better going down the Kallistra route. I thought it might have been too much hassle to paint and flock them, as the pre-flocked ones were much more expensive, but as it turns out, I have spent a long time on my own hexes with still plenty to be done, so it may have been a better option! Good work from you though!

Thanks Gunrunner!It all comes down to money vs time I guess. In retrospect the cheaper option in both money and time would have been extra Zuzzy mats. As I've gone this far already I will continue working on these to try to get the most out of them.

Thank you Mike!The extra terrain features were modeled on with putty (craters) and crumbled cork tile (broken ground) and the ground texture was Reevs Coarse texture gel for scrylic paint, and a little liquitex resin sand texture gel. I painted them with craft paints with a basecoat and 2 drybrushed highlights and then glued on 2mm winter grass flock, and some longer static grass flock I had as well.